🏠 Private life

How private life works (time and billing)

Private life runs on the real calendar, just like your cost of living: all recurring items (rent or service charges, food, subscriptions, car and boat upkeep) are debited together with the rest of your cost of living on the 28th of every month.

• Changes take effect at the next billing: if you move or switch a subscription, the new amount applies from the next 28th — the dialog tells you so when you change something.
• One-off costs are due immediately: deposit, moving van, furniture, vehicle and property purchases as well as holidays are taken straight from your current account — so the money has to be there.

The housing ladder: from shared room to house

You start in a furnished room in a shared flat — and can move up step by step (or several steps at once if you can afford it). The only condition: the deposit and the moving van must be covered by your current account. No level, no game requirement — money rules.

Step	Home	Rent (warm)	Deposit	Moving van	Comfort	Furniture slots
1	Furnished shared room (start)	€450	—	—	1	0
2	1-room flat, 35 m²	€620	€1,240	€300	2	3
3	2-room flat, 55 m²	€890	€1,780	€450	4	6
4	3-room flat, 80 m²	€1,250	€2,500	€600	6	10
5	House with garden, 130 m²	€1,850	€3,700	€800	8	14

• The shared room has 0 furniture slots — your first move unlocks furnishing.
• Your deposit is not gone: it sits at the bank and comes back in full when you move out (when moving up it is offset against the new one).
• Moving down is allowed. If money gets tight, simply move somewhere smaller. Furniture that no longer fits is sold automatically at 40 % of its purchase price — the moving dialog warns you beforehand exactly which pieces that would be.
• Your furniture moves with you as long as the new home has enough slots.

Buying instead of renting (from the 2-room flat up)

From step 3 you can also buy your home — prices are modelled on real Leverkusen property prices:

Property	Purchase price	Service charges instead of rent
2-room owner-occupied flat	€185,000	€240/month
3-room owner-occupied flat	€265,000	€290/month
House with garden	€475,000	€420/month

• On top of the price you pay 8.5 % purchase costs (NRW property transfer tax 6.5 % plus notary and land register ~2 % — just like in real life). Honest answer: this money is gone. On the 2-room flat, for example, that is €15,725 you will never see again when selling.
• In return you pay no more rent, only the service-charge item — and an owned home gives you one comfort point more than the same flat rented.
• If you move again, your property is automatically sold at the purchase price — you get the full price back, only the purchase costs stay lost.

So buying pays off in the long run (the rent-versus-charges saving eventually recovers the purchase costs) — and above all it is a proper long-term goal for well-running businesses.

Furnishing: buying furniture (honestly calculated)

Every piece of furniture needs a free slot, adds comfort — and some even lower your monthly costs:

Item	Price	Comfort	Side effect
Bed (instead of a mattress)	€450	+1	—
Sofa	€700	+1	—
Television	€600	+1	required for Netflix
Coffee machine	€250	+1	food −€15/month
Washing machine	€550	+1	cost of living −€25/month (no launderette)
Desk	€400	+1	—
Bookshelf	€320	+1	—
Games console	€500	+1	—
Kitchen, simple	€4,000	+2	food −€40/month
Kitchen, premium	€12,000	+3	food −€60/month (replaces the simple one — you only pay the difference)

Let us be honest with the numbers: the coffee machine pays for itself through the food discount after about 17 months, the washing machine after about 22 months — the simple kitchen only after roughly 8 years. You do not buy the big items to save money, you buy them for the comfort — which earns you credit headroom and cheaper market-hall fees (see below).

• You can sell any piece of furniture at any time — at 40 % of its purchase price.
• The food discounts never push your food item below €60/month — you always have to eat something.

Food: simple, normal or good

Instead of a fixed food item you now choose how you live:

Level	€/month	Comfort
Simple	€150	—
Normal (start)	€300	—
Good	€550	+1

The furniture discounts (coffee machine, kitchen) apply to the chosen amount — floor €60/month. If you need to save, switch to "simple" and you lose nothing but the one comfort point of the "good" level. The change takes effect at the next billing.

Subscriptions: on and off at any time

Subscriptions cost money monthly, add one comfort point each and can be cancelled at any time — both take effect at the next billing:

Subscription	€/month	Comfort	Condition
Netflix	€13	+1	television required
Gym	€30	+1	—
Newspaper	€45	+1	—
Music streaming	€12.99	+1	—

The basic items of your cost of living remain mandatory as before: electricity €45, phone and internet €35 — and the broadcasting fee of €18.36. That one gives you zero comfort and nothing at all. This is not an oversight, it is the joke: the only expense in the whole game that deliberately gives nothing back. Just like in real life, you still have to pay it.

Car and boat: upkeep and depreciation — honestly

Your garage holds at most one car, and the Rhine berth at most one boat (the berth is included in the upkeep):

Car	Purchase price	Upkeep/month	Comfort
Small car, used	€9,500	€130	+1
Compact, new	€32,000	€220	+2
Sports car	€85,000	€380	+3

Boat	Purchase price	Berth+upkeep/month	Comfort
Inflatable with motor	€4,900	€45	+1
Sports boat 5 m	€24,000	€160	+2
Cabin boat 8 m	€68,000	€320	+3

Honest answer — a vehicle is an expense, not an investment:

• The upkeep (insurance, tax, fuel, maintenance — for the boat including the berth) runs every month, whether you play or not.
• On top comes depreciation: a car loses 1.5 % of its purchase price per month (down to a floor of 30 %), a boat 1 % per month (floor 40 %). You can sell at any time — but always only at the current market value.
• When upgrading to a better model, the dialog takes your old vehicle in part-exchange at its current value — you only pay the difference.

Holidays: recovery, postcards — and your account is protected

A holiday is an experience purchase — paid immediately, with a threefold effect:

Trip	Price	Days
Camping weekend	€250	3
City trip	€600	4
Beach week in Mallorca	€950	7
Long-haul trip	€3,400	14

• Inactivity protection — the most important effect: for the booked holiday days your account counts as active. The bank's seizure and deletion clock (see the "Bank & current account" guide) stands still during that time. So if you go away for two weeks in real life, book a long-haul trip beforehand — then nothing whatsoever happens to your account. You can book up to 30 days into the future at most (today's default — what the game shows you is what counts); stockpiling beyond that is not possible.
• "Refreshed": from the moment of booking you get +2 comfort for 30 days — your standard of living rises noticeably while the recovery lasts.
• Postcard: every trip lands as a postcard (picture and date) in the album on your "My life" card — the last 12 are kept.

Comfort: what it actually does

Your comfort is the sum of your home (ownership +1), furniture, subscriptions, "good" food, car, boat and the "refreshed" bonus. It is always calculated live from what you own. And this is what it does today:

• Bigger credit limit: every comfort point raises your credit-score limit by €100, up to +€2,000 in total — in addition to the playtime ladder. The bank shows this share separately in the credit-score text ("standard of living: +€X").
• Cheaper market hall: the seller fee drops from 5 % to 4 % at comfort 8, and to 3 % at comfort 15. The market hall shows you your rate.
• The games themselves follow later: the plan is for high comfort to become noticeable inside the five businesses too (shorter build times, for example) — that comes in a later package and does not apply yet.

What comfort never does: create money. There is no cash bonus, no extra income, no interest advantage on your balance — comfort makes your life more comfortable, not your account fuller.

Your standard of living: the five levels

Your comfort points translate into a standard-of-living level:

Comfort	Level
0–2	Beginner
3–5	Settled in
6–9	Nicely furnished
10–14	Upscale lifestyle
15+	The sweet life

The "My life" card shows your level, your points, a progress bar and always one concrete next goal — the cheapest step you are still missing.

The iron rules

• None of this is mandatory. The furnished shared room carries the entire game — you can play all five businesses to the endgame without ever moving or buying a single piece of furniture. Private life is a reward and a long-term goal, not a tax.
• Comfort never gives money. Only less friction: more credit headroom, smaller fees. If you only want to run your businesses, you lose nothing by skipping it.
• Every expense gives you something back — comfort, discounts, protection or resale value. The one deliberate exception is the broadcasting fee: it gives you nothing, and that is exactly the joke.
• Moving down is always allowed — live smaller, cancel subscriptions, sell the vehicle, eat simpler. If money gets tight, scale your life down a size and get back on your feet.